Iontophoresis is a technology used to infiltrate a target substance having electric charge into the skin using electrical repulsion by allowing a micro current to flow in the skin.
When a patch mounted with the target substance is attached to the skin, a circuit in which an electric current can flow is formed in the skin, and thus electrical repulsion infiltrates the target substance into the skin. The infiltration rate of a target substance is known to be influenced by the amount of current flowing in the skin and the voltage.
A conventional iontophoresis patch is manufactured by independently fabricating a thin film-type battery and a patch mounted with an electroconductive electrode and then connecting the electroconductive electrode with the thin film-type battery. However, this conventional iontophoresis patch is problematic in that resistance increases when electric current flows, and in that an assembly process is complicated, and thus productivity becomes low, thereby increasing the manufacturing cost thereof.
In order to solve the problem, Korean Patent Registration No. 868350, filed by the present applicant, discloses an iontophoresis patch in which an electrode material is directly applied onto a conductive layer in the patch to form the patch and a battery into one system. The iontophoresis patch uses the conductive layer as the electrode of a battery and uses ion-conductive hydrogel to minimize the contact resistance between the patch and skin. However, this iontophoresis patch is also problematic in that a target substance having low electrochemical resistance is destroyed because it directly comes into contact with an electrode of a battery.